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The legends for these badges say

Shared a link to a question that was visited ...

But if I share a link directly to the answer, like this one, does it also count for these badges?

BTW, does it also count if I share the link at StackExchange site? Or must it be outside? This is not written in the legend nor here.

EDIT: Feb 26 2012: It seems links to answers work too??!! 2 days ago I received an Announcer badge, but the link pointed to answer!! I don't remember publishing any other link to this question.

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    To answer your "BTW" - it has to be shared outside the SE network.
    – ChrisF Mod
    Commented Dec 2, 2011 at 19:51
  • @ChrisF - But that means I have to participate in fb or twitter, both of which do not interest me.
    – JonH
    Commented Dec 2, 2011 at 20:09
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    @JonH - it could be on Google+ :) or even your own blog. Basically it's anywhere other than SE.
    – ChrisF Mod
    Commented Dec 2, 2011 at 22:58
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    The accepted answer is no longer correct
    – Brian Webster
    Commented Mar 6, 2013 at 19:18

3 Answers 3

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According to the "Recent feature changes" Q/A, since 2012-01-10 "[s]haring direct links to answers now also counts towards [the Announcer, Booster, and Publicist] badges".

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  • Is this still valid, I shared an answer link and received no badge yet although the number of views grew substantially for that question.
    – Eduard Florinescu
    Commented Sep 10, 2014 at 5:03
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    @EduardFlorinescu The relevant number for the badges is external views (which aren't displayed AFAIK).
    – lockstep
    Commented Sep 10, 2014 at 21:33
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No, but you can make a link that does.

Share links for questions and answers look like this:

http://stackoverflow.com/q/<question-id>/<user-id>
http://stackoverflow.com/a/<answer-id>/<user-id>

If you take a question link and add an anchor with the answer id at the end, i.e.

http://stackoverflow.com/q/<question-id>/<user-id>#<answer-id>

This should both link to the answer and count towards referral badges.

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  • Wow, that's a good trick man! @RebeccaChernoff, can you tell us if this will work?
    – Tomas
    Commented Dec 3, 2011 at 7:33
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    @TomasT. It works in most cases (example), but it's not an official feature and can fail for the few question that have multiple pages (example).
    – Jeremy
    Commented Dec 3, 2011 at 8:08
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    @Jeremy no, I meant if the accounting for the badge works, not the link itself :)
    – Tomas
    Commented Dec 3, 2011 at 9:28
  • @hammar now I see that it must work because the server won't see the #<answer-id> part of the URL! How great!!
    – Tomas
    Commented Dec 3, 2011 at 9:29
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At the moment of writing this (December 2011), these badges were specifically for linking to questions like the description says. (This was changed later, as mentioned in this answer.)

The link must be clicked from outside the network in order for it to count for this purpose. Editor's note: As of the 2018 move to HTTPS, clicks from inside the network also count, as it's now impossible to distinguish this.

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    Can you comment on the purpose of having the linking user's ID in the URL, if it's not used for this?
    – user154510
    Commented Dec 2, 2011 at 19:58
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    Rebecca, thank you for answer. Wow, that's surprising! I'd expect linking an answer directly is almost the same as linking the whole question, so it is a promotion of StackOverflow anyway... isn't it?
    – Tomas
    Commented Dec 2, 2011 at 20:01
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    Is it difficult to have them count? I am as likely to link to an answer as to the specific question - now if I want to badge-chase I need to change my ways. How is that encouraging better behaviour (that is, why does it matter which I link to?)
    – Kate Gregory
    Commented Dec 2, 2011 at 20:08
  • This doesn't seem to make a lot of sense - why should I sign up for facebook or twitter to earn a badge? I'd rather pass on the badges if I need to sign up to these types of sites.
    – JonH
    Commented Dec 2, 2011 at 20:08
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    @JonH You don't have to sign up anywhere. Sharing on any external site would work, or you could email the link to people you know, etc. Plus, strictly speaking you don't have to have the badge either. :)
    – Adam Lear StaffMod
    Commented Dec 2, 2011 at 20:09
  • @AnnaLear - But the "marketing" behind it says to share the answer or question on fb / twitter / linked..etc.
    – JonH
    Commented Dec 2, 2011 at 20:10
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    @JonH What do you mean by "marketing behind it"?
    – Adam Lear StaffMod
    Commented Dec 2, 2011 at 20:12
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    @MatthewRead we've discussed behavior changes with these badges, but no changes have been made, and my answer is the way they are currently.
    – Rebecca Chernoff Mod
    Commented Dec 2, 2011 at 20:12
  • @Rebecca, if there is a pending proposal to change it (as this discussion suggests, that would be a good thing), please share a link.
    – Tomas
    Commented Dec 2, 2011 at 20:52
  • @AnnaLear He means the share to twitter/fb/what-have-you buttons that you find under/next to answers
    – Lorem Ipsum
    Commented Dec 2, 2011 at 23:46
  • @Rebecca, now it seems the links to answers work too? I'm confused. Please see update of my question.
    – Tomas
    Commented Feb 26, 2012 at 10:13
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    @Tomas (or anyone else arriving here with that question) see the 2012-01-10 entry in this post. Answer links now count as well as question links.
    – Wildcard
    Commented Feb 26, 2016 at 23:55

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